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Open letter from Iranian and Afghan Women, International Lawyers and Global Women Leaders Urging Countries to Recognize the Crime of Gender Apartheid

As a diverse coalition of Iranian and Afghan women leaders, international legal practitioners, activists and other stakeholders, we are calling on states to recognize the crime of gender apartheid to counteract and eventually end the systems of gender apartheid currently in place in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan are often described as “gender apartheid” regimes for their treatment of women as second-class citizens under law and policy. However, apartheid standards in international law, developed primarily in the 20th century, were designed to address racial apartheid.

Apartheid comes from the Afrikaans word for “apart.” The term was born out of apartheid South Africa, and its system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination, which sought to establish and maintain dominance by white South Africans over black South Africans. That system eventually came to an end, in part because of decades of pressure and isolation from international actors through shaming and severing diplomatic and economic relations.

While representing a distinct form of apartheid from that in South Africa, the components of systematic segregation and subjugation that make up apartheid are present in Afghanistan and Iran today. Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan are banned from education, employment in NGOs and in government, and from traveling long distances without a male guardian, all while having to abide by a severe dress code. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, women are banned from many fields of study, sporting events, and from obtaining a passport and traveling outside the country without their husband’s permission. Women’s lives and their testimony are worth half a man under the law and they are forced to wear compulsory hijab. These bans, and the broader legal systems they belong to, seek to establish and maintain women’s subjugation to men, and the State. Violation of these laws can lead to violence, imprisonment, and death.

Looking to the example of the international community’s condemnation of apartheid South Africa, women living in Iran and Afghanistan are requesting similarly internationalized responses to end the gender apartheid regimes they are subject to. In order to fully realize the goals of the woman-led revolution in Iran and to support the courageous defiance of Afghan women who have had their rights brutally stripped away, the international community must properly recognize the harms of a legally enshrined system in which women are treated as second-class citizens and acknowledge this not only through condemnation but through effective, concerted action.

The situations in the Islamic Republic of Iran and under the Taliban in Afghanistan are not simply cases of gender discrimination. Rather, these systems are perpetuating a more extreme, systematic and structural war against women designed to dehumanize and repress them for purposes of entrenching power.

Our chief demands to governments

  1. Amplify and center the experiences of women in Iran and Afghanistan living under gender apartheid.
  2. Make statements, issue resolutions and shape other policy responses to condemn the gender apartheid regimes in Iran and Afghanistan.
  3. Interpret and/or expand the legal definition of apartheid under international and national laws to include severe forms of institutionalized gender-based discrimination.

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Key Signatures

  • Shirin Ebadi
    Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
  • Najla Ayoubi
    Judge, Co-founder Every Woman Treaty
  • Mehrangiz Kar
    Lawyer, Women's Rights Defender & Author
  • Fawzia Koofi
    First Woman Deputy Speaker, Afghan Parliament
  • Graça Machel
    Former Minister of Education & First Lady of Mozambique
  • Wahida Rahimi
    Former Judge, Afghanistan
  • Masih Alinejad
    Journalist, Human Rights Activist
  • Nazanin Boniadi
    Actress & Human Rights Activist
  • Wahida Amiri
    Women’s Rights Defender, Afghanistan
  • Atena Daemi
    Human Rights Activist
  • Karima Bennoune
    Law Professor & Former UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights
  • Golshifteh Farahani
    Actress & Activist
  • Roya Boroumand
    Executive Director, Abdorrahman Boroumand Center
  • Ladan Boroumand
    Historian & Human Rights Activist
  • Shadi Sadr
    Human Rights Lawyer
  • Azadeh Pourzand
    Co-founder & Director, Siamak Pourzand Foundation
  • Asieh Amini
    Poet, Writer & Women's Rights Activist
  • Nazanin Afshin-Jam Mackay
    Human Rights Activist
  • Pashtana Dorani
    Executive Director LEARN, Afghan Activist
  • Nayera Kohistani
    Afghan Civil Rights Activist
  • Gissou Nia
    Human Rights Lawyer
  • Nina Ansary
    Author & Human Rights Advocate
  • Azita Ghanizada
    Actress & Activist
  • Zahra Joya
    Journalist & Founder, Rukhshana Media
  • Azar Nafisi
    Writer & Activist
  • Zehra Zaidi
    Co-Founder, Action for Afghanistan
  • Kobra Moradi
    Human Rights Lawyer
  • Mina Sharif
    Paragon Institute
  • Julia Parsi
    Leader in Afghan Women's Protest Movement
  • Naeema Asadi
    Women’s Rights Defender, Afghanistan
  • Sodaba Bayani
    Women's Rights Activist, Afghanistan
  • Shirin Neshat
    Artist
  • Nafisa Kabuli
    President, Afghan Women Judge’s Association
  • Lily Pourzand
    Gender Equality Expert
  • Sepideh Moafi
    Activist & Actor
  • Lida Kharooti Sayeed
    Judge & Founder & Vice President of the Afghan Women's Judges Association
  • Zahra Nader
    Editor-in-Chief of Zan Times
  • Zubaida Akbar
    Woman Human Rights Defender & Afghanistan Program Officer for Freedom Now
  • Metra Mehran
    Afghan Women's Rights Defender
  • Ratna Omidvar
    Senator of Canada
  • Sheeba Raufi
    Civil & Women’s Rights Activist
  • Natasha Latiff
    Human Rights Lawyer, Strategic Advocacy for Human Rights (SAHR)
  • Humaira Ameeri
    Afghan Human Rights Lawyer
  • Nazanin Nour
    Actor & Activist
  • Mozhan Marno
    Actress, Writer & Activist
  • Nasim Pedrad
    Actor & Activist
  • Akila Radhakrishnan
    President of the Global Justice Center
  • Maryam Namazie
    One Law for All
  • Soraya Fallah
    Researcher & Women's Rights Activist
  • Goli Ameri
    Former US representative UN General Assembly
  • Mariam Khosravani
    Founder of Iranian American Women Foundation
  • Horia Mosadiq
    Director of Conflict Analysis Network (CAN)
  • Open Stadiums
    Movement to let Iranian women into stadiums
  • Mariam Safi
    Director, Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS)
  • Neelam Raina
    Professor & Founder of Afghan Solidarity Coalition
  • Raakhi Shah
    Chief Executive, The Circle
  • Mahya Ostovar
    Human Rights Activist, Assistant Professor at University of Galway
  • Fardin Hashimi
    CEO & Founder, Afghanistan Development Studies Center
  • Roshan Mashal
    Women's Human Rights Activist, Afghanistan
  • Firuzeh Mahmoudi
    Founder & Director, United for Iran
  • Global Justice Center
    Lawyers advancing gender equality and human rights
  • Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN)
    Protecting & empowering immigrant survivors of crime and persecution
  • Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS)
    Afghan organization committed to strengthening democratic ideas and values
  • Malini Mehra
    Chief Executive, Globe Legislators
  • Magda Zenon
    Women, Peace and Security Expert
  • Nushin Sarkarati
    Human Rights Lawyer
  • Homa Sarshar
    Author, Activist
  • Zainab Salbi
    Author, Activist
  • V (formerly Eve Ensler)
    Author, Activist
  • Aliye Yilmaz
    Head of Afghanistan Education, Culture and Social Assistance Association in Ankara
  • Parwana Paikan
    Minister Counselor & Deputy, Afghanistan Embassy in France
  • Lailuma Sadid
    President, Network of Afghan Diaspora Organisations in Europe
  • Rada Akbar
    Afghan Artist & Activist
  • Humira Saqib
    Director, Afghan Women News Agency Organization
  • Afghan Women News Agency Organization
    Non profit media group raising the voices of women in the news
  • Visaka Dharmadasa
    Chairperson, Association of War Affected Women
  • Moj Mahdara
    Founder & Managing Director Kinship Ventures
  • Maryam Rayed
    Founder, Afghanistan Women's Think Tank
  • Angela Mehri
    Human Rights Activist
  • Fariza Akbari Ibrahimi
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist
  • Tamanna Rezaei
    Women's Rights Activist
  • Sabira Akbari
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Lina Ahmadi
    Afghan Lawyer and Protestor
  • Sumaya Shirzad
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Aliya Naibi
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Fahranaz Haidari
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Tara Grammy
    Actor & Activist
  • Niousha Noor
    Actor & Activist
  • Shella Kohestani
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist
  • Zahrah Mirzaei
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Zahra Mohammadi Haqparas
    Founder, Unity and Solidarity Team of Afghan Women
  • Fatema Qurbani
    Afghan Human Rights Activist
  • Gulsom Zahra
    Afghan Human Rights Activist
  • Sima Noori
    Head of Women's Affairs Committee, Hazara World Council
  • Nilofar Ayoubi
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Munisa Mobariz
    Founder, Afghanistan Powerful Women's movement
  • Fawzia Wahdat
    Journalist & Women's Rights Activist
  • Tahera Nasiri
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Atefa Tayeb
    Former Afghan Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Affairs
  • Task Force Nyx
    Women-led NGO that fights for the futures and freedoms of Afghan women and girls
  • Yasmeen Ghyasi
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist & Protestor
  • Maliha Zafari
    Civil Society Activist
  • Maryam Shafipour
    Human Rights Activist
  • Azam Jangravi
    Women's Rights Activist
  • Benafsha Yaqoobi
    Former Commissioner on Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
  • Shabana Basij-Rasikh
    Afghan Educator & Activist
  • Azadah Raz Mohammad
    International Human Rights Lawyer
  • Rangita de Silva de Alwis
    Hillary Rodham Clinton Distinguished Fellow, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security
  • Yalda Royan
    Afghan Women's Rights Activist
  • Zarqa Yaftali
    Executive Director, Women and Children Legal Research Foundation
  • International Civil Society Action Network
  • Sara Wahedi
    Humanitarian & Founder, Ehtesab
  • Sharan Tabari
    Journalist
  • Nazenin Ansari
    Journalist
  • Ava Homa
    Author
  • Farangiss Bayat
    Political Researcher
  • Crystal Bayat
    Women's Rights Activist
  • Hedvig Alexander
    Former Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Afghanistan
  • Chris Alexander
    Former Ambassador of Canada to Afghanistan, Former Minister of Immigration and Citizenship
  • Ratna Omidvar
    Senator, Senate of Canada
  • Fatema Daryab Ahmadi
    Afghan Human Rights Defender & Freedom of Religion Advocate.
  • Maliha Shirzay
    President, International Afghan Enlightened Women
  • Mahsa Khanbabai
    AILA Board of Governors, Director
  • Yasmine Chubin
    Legal Advocacy Director, Clooney Foundation for Justice
  • Nadia Hashimi
    Author & Physician
  • Payam Akhavan
    Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto
  • Helena Kennedy
    Director of the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, UK House of Lords peer
  • Ewelina Ochab
    IBA Human Rights Institute programme lawyer, co-founder of Coalition for Genocide Response
  • Shabnam Nasimi
    Former UK Policy Advisor to Minister for Afghan Resettlement & Minister for Refugees
  • Every Woman Treaty
    Coalition of over 1,700 advocates
  • Mariam Memarsadeghi
    Activist
  • Christina Hioureas
    Chair - United Nations Practice Group, Foley Hoag LLP